Last Updated (Monday, 29 November 1999 16:00) Written by Pig Monday, 18 August 2008 09:50
An MMO launch is a funny thing: it may look great, or it may go very badly, but the final success of the game won't be known for months after the launch has occurred. Because of the nature of MMOs, a game's ability to get and keep subscribers simply isn't reflected in sales figures alone. Consider Tabula Rasa - although the launch was a big deal, the game has struggled, like a fat inebriated dwarf thrown into the deep end of the pool, to keep it's head above water ever since.
And that's where Age of Conan comes in: it had a very solid launch, there was a lot of excitement about the game, and the initial numbers looked excellent. Somewhere around 800,000 copies were sold, which was extremely promising, though some players were very critical of the game. Speculation about its overall survival was rampant.
Now, it seems, the numbers are in, and they're pretty good: 415,000 subscribers. That's more than solid; functionally, it means that AoC and LOTRO are struggling over the number 2 spot in MMO gaming. (Why does this call to mind pictures of Conan wrestling with hobbits? Oh, never mind...) Of course, WoW is still number one, with (ahem) 10 million subscribers.
What does this mean? Well, it means that for every person playing AoC or LOTRO, there are 20 people playing WoW. All snark aside, it also means that AoC has an opportunity to grow; WoW started with a similar subscription base, too, and grew to epic proportions. If Funcom can continue to build on what they have now, AoC may yet become a powerhouse worthy of its Cimmerian namesake.
[Source]
| Comments |
|
